Athenians like other cultures, the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, had an established class system developing through law by the polis. Class or status in Ancient Athens was a part of consensus among many scholars embodying both legal right and social standing broken down into the citizen, the metics, and the slaves. slave/metics/citizen, the citizen and the non-citizen, or another form. Mogens Hansen, a leading scholar on the Athenian democracy and the polis coined the three classes in Athens as the privileged (citizens), the unprivileged (metics), and the slaves. Through the sixth century, Athenians maintained the strict class system. Deborah Kamen, Status in Classical Athens, took status to a new level by subdividing each of the three classes. The slaves were separated into slaves, privileged slaves, freedmen, and conditionally freedmen; the metics were separated into metics, privileged metics, bastards, …show more content…
In order to trade in the marketplace, they paid a special tax. Even access to the judicial system was limited. Slaves were considered property which could be bought, sold, or hired out. Masters were responsible for their slave in legal actions, having no identity. Women and children were under the protection of a father, husband, or other male acting as a guardian in all important affairs. These women and female children could not enter into contract, own property, or marry without the guardian’s consent. As for male children, they were also under a guardian until they were of age and entered adulthood. The status system in ancient Athens has been accepted and unchallenged with references in the ancient texts which makes it a historical perspective to embrace. It is easy for those scholars who accept the class system as essential for analysis of society or work within the institution of legal history as essential for a means of
As I am a recent participant in the Assembly, some of you may not be familiar with my person. I am Simon, a cobbler from the Deme District of Athens in the Kydathenaeum. It was through my profession that I met Socrates, of whom I am a follower. He was my inspiration to attend the Assembly and to become an active participator in its discussions. Through Socrates and my visits to the Assembly, I gained my belief that those citizens who participate in the Assembly and serve as jurors in the law courts should not receive compensation because they are taking part in their civic duty as Athenians.
The socioeconomic structure of ancient Sparta was unbalanced and disproportioned, and because of the social unrest between the citizens of Sparta economic reforms were desperately needed. Plutarch highlights this issue when he says:
The studied passage indicates a clear division of classes: the free men, those excluded from political rights, the serfs and the slaves. The question of ‘serfdom’ in ancient Greece remains a disputable concept among scholars, and there is no wide consensus that serfs and slaves were clear-cut categories in Gortyn – but it quite probable that the terms were used to distinguish the ‘home-grown’ servile population from the foreign chattel-slaves. Not surprisingly, the text confirms that slaves had fewer rights than free men, but also indicates that lower-status people were granted protection under the law against the most severe abuses – in sharp contrast with slavery practices in Athens for instance. These legal provisions might be explained by the fact that the servile population was rather ‘home-grown’ than from foreign origin – and it can be argued that the development of chattel-slavery involved a progressive diminution of the rights of those who became slaves. In any case, this is a strong indication that slavery practices differ from one city-state to another, meaning that conclusions derived from the Gortyn code should not be too quickly
Athenian Women: Just as a mother nurses a child, Athenian society, nurtured and cultivated a submissive role for women. In Athens, women endured many difficulties and hardships in multiple areas including marriage, wealth, and social life. All three elements shaped and formed the mold of the submissive female. In Athens, women had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of a household headed by a male. Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or other male relative, once married the husband became the woman’s guardian. Marriage, a modern romanticized idea of being united with a lifelong partner by love was the furthest thought from the mind of a woman living in ancient Greece. When a young woman was to marry, she was given in marriage by her male relatives. The woman’s voice had no bearing on the matter legally or otherwise. Marriage was seen as an exchange making it a practical business arrangement, not a love match.
Athens and Sparta are both infamous Greek city states. Both could not be more different, yet similar in the way they governed their own city state. Another, main difference was the women’s rights and roles in the system. Athenian and Spartan women both were considered to be second to their male counterparts. Spartan women had more rights than Athenian women. Through, research realizing that the Spartan women were slightly greater role than Athenian women.
Unlike other Greek city states, women played an integral role in Spartan society as they were the backbone of the Spartan economic system of inheritance and marriage dowry and they were relied upon to fulfill their main responsibility of producing Spartan warrior sons. These principle economic systems affected wealth distribution among Spartan citizens especially among the Spartan elite class. Spartan women led a completely different life than women in most other ancient Greek city states, as they were depended upon to maintain Spartan social systems. In a society where the state is more involved in home life women had freedom of movement and they were permitted to communicate with men who were not their husbands. Women had domestic responsibilities including the maintenance of homes and farms when the men were on campaign, while the typical Greek female responsibilities such as weaving were delegated to slaves. Girls were raised much like Spartan boys as they were made to go through physical training insuring their success in fulfilling their most important role in society, child-bearing. The few primary sources on Sparta and Spartiate women, namely Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus and Xenophon were historians who lived after the prominence of ancient Sparta; therefore, the facts regarding the women’s influence in social, economic and political issues must be carefully interpreted and analysed with help from secondary sources.
Athenian democracy includes participation of all adult, free, male, citizen, made possible for all. If at the beginning and during the thriving period of the Athens democracy the occupations of a state position was considered to be an worthy duty for the citizens, the taking in of ...
The system of government we have today was starting to developed centuries ago by the Athenians and Romans. Both governments were established with the intent to give power to the people, even though it did not always play out that way in society. The Athenian democracy and the Roman republic were two very different governments in practice, but also maintained similar characteristics in both systems of government.
In ancient Greek society women lived hard lives on account of men's patriarch built communities. Women were treated as property. Until about a girl’s teens she was "owned" by her father or lived with her family. Once the girl got married she was possessed by her husband along with all her belongings. An ancient Greece teenage girl would marry about a 30-year-old man that she probably never met before. Many men perceived women as being not being human but creatures that were created to produce children, please men, and to fulfill their household duties. A bride would not even be considered a member of the family until she produced her first child. In addition to having a child, which is a hard and painful task for a teenage girl in ancient civilization to do, the husband gets to decide if he wants the baby. A baby would be left outside to die if the husband was not satisfied with it; usually this would happen because the child was unhealthy, different looking, or a girl.
At age 20 Spartans had to a difficult test to graduate and become citizens. The soldiers received the aristocratic citizenship. If they failed the test they became middle class. Classes were based on accomplishment rather than birth.
The main architect of Athenian law was Solon. It is unknown when Solon was born. He died in 559 BC. (Plutarch). Solon allowed everyone to participate in court (Stockton 19). He created a code of laws based on justice, balance, and good order (Muller). Solon abolished the practice of debt bondage (Muller). Solon created the Council of 400 (Boule), and a court called the Heliaia. (Muller) Solon divided Athenians into classes in accordance with their income (Plutarch). The lowest class, the thetes, was ineligible for election to office (Plutarch). However, they could still come into the assembly and act as jurors (Plutarch). The other classes, from lowest to highest, were zeugits, hippies, and pentakosiomedimnoi (Muller).
This paragraph will concern the social structure of ancient Greece society. In ancient Greece society, only native-born men were granted citizenship and entitled to full protection of the law in a city-state (wikipedia.org/Ancient Greece). In the majority of city-states, social prominence did not include special rights. In some situations, families controlled public functions, but this did not exactly grant extra power for the government. In the state of Athens, the population was divided into four social classes which was based on wealth. A persons amount of income was able to determine of they were eligible to change classes. In Sparta, male citizens received the title of equal if they completed their education requirements. With this being
Socrates and Plato were some of the world’s most famous philosophers. Yet, they caused much trouble in the midst of their philosophizing. These philosophers, in the view of the political elites, were threatening the Athenian democracy with their philosophy. But why did they go against the status quo? What was their point in causing all of this turmoil? Plato and Socrates threatened the democracy as a wake-up call. They wanted the citizens to be active thinkers and improve society. This manifested itself in three main ways: Socrates’ life, his student Plato’s life, and their legacy in our modern age.
Schooling and education in the past were only attended and given to rich, wealthy people and males. In the Greek education system, only males were given the opportunity to go to school, while the women and slaves stayed home and worked. Education in America has some of the average test scores and lower grades in the world, and there are many problems with the system itself. According to a poll taken by registered voters, lack of school choices wasn’t a very big issue compared to the number of votes that said that absence of parental involvement and budget cuts were. When students graduate from high school, there is a good portion that are not fully ready for college. There are at least twenty things that are very important skills in life that
... did not have tyrannous men overlooking them as men did to women in Athens. Although these two ancient societies were in the same country, the value of women and their freedom were very different. By comparing and contrasting we are able to better understand the concept of gender, how gender inequalities have changed from the past, and what we have learned about the history of women and gender. In analysis, the value of women in these two societies was greatly influenced by their role and contribution to society. Women in Sparta were valued more because they gave birth to potential warriors and since Sparta was a militarized state more warriors were needed. Spartan women hired lower class women for the chores. In Athens, women were less valued because household role such as taking care of the house, chores, and cooking were not equally important to society as men.